Futile - Newt [TMR]

01:01 - survival

"Nope," Ada laughed as she pulled a crate onto the grass, "we haven't found any extras yet."

The moment that they got everything off of the box, the doors slammed shut and the box plummeted back to the depths of where it came from. Alice looked around the hub, "sorry, can I suggest something?" The need was itching at her as she watched the animals press against the bars of their cages, Ada nodded for her to speak, "we need to get a fence set up for the animals so we can repurpose the crates." She took a crowbar and split open one of the creates, "use this wire after we carve some branches to make stakes."

Emmy scoffed while everyone else followed what Alice said, they saw the value in following along with the new girls plan as it did make sense, "who died and put you in charge?" She was the only one who saw a problem with listening to Alice and her plan for the animals.

"Maybe you would be in charge if you started making good plans within five minutes of arriving." Kat said to Emmy in a tone that left no room for argument, when the tall girl caught Alice watching her, she sent her a wink before she headed over for the trees to get wood for the stakes.

They constructed the fence for the animals in one of the far corners of the Hub, split apart the crates that the animals had come up in and repurposed them. They still had several hours left in the day, so they chose to string hammocks up from trees before they put tarps overhead, it was temporary, but it would do. Just as Alice was securing the last tarp over their heads, there was a huge bang that caused her to spin on her heel to look for the source of the noise. She moved to the centre of the Hub to see that the huge gap between the walls was slowly closing, she didn't even know that they were doors.

"Creepy, right?" Kat grinned that maniacal smile that she always seemed to don, Alice found herself grinning back to her, "only been here for a few days and it isn't any less weird."

The two girls watched as the doors shut with a deafening bang, "Creepy is the biggest understatement I've ever heard."

"We don't have any memory, it's the first understatement you've ever heard." Kat laughed as all of the girls moved towards the campfire that someone had lit, Rosa was getting some food ready to fry in one of the pans.

Alice let the quiet of the night wash over her for a few minutes before she speaks up from where she had sat herself down near to the fire, "has anyone gone out there yet?" The niggling curiosity pawed at the back of her mind.

It was almost as though the whole Hub went quiet with Alice's words; five sets of eyes turned to look at her. Ada found her voice first, glancing around at all of the girls as she did, "no, there's... something." Almost as though whatever was beyond the walls was listening to them, a scream echoed into the Hub. Neither human nor animal.

Monster.

- - - - - - - -

Each day for the next eight days, a new, disorientated girl, was produced by the box alongside a slew of supplies. On the ninth day, it didn't come up which caused panic to erupt across the Hub, meaning that Alice and Ada were tasked with calming all of the girls down. Alice's own hands shook lightly with fear, her thumb rubbing over the pattern of her locket repeatedly in an attempt to calm herself down.

Ada gathered everyone into the meeting place, essentially where they were all sleeping, eating and living, and Alice stood up in front of them all, "it's time that we assume we will be here for a long time."

"We need to set up rules, otherwise there won't be anyone left at the end of whatever this is." Ada picked up where Alice left off, her nerves about the whole situation showed in how she was pacing in front of them all – her calm front was just that. A front. "Once we have rules, we can set up jobs."

Everyone gathered around one of the tables that they had made and came up with relatively simple rules that they would follow, they could be built upon later, but they needed to survive for now, not live;

1. Do your part
2. No going beyond the walls
3. If you harm another girl badly, you'll be punished
4. Share all resources
5. Look out for one another.

Jobs were created, girls were placed in charge of those jobs and Alice was made second-in-command, voted in by all girls apart from Emmy, surprise, surprise.

A soft voice spoke up from where they were sat on the table, "do you think we could carve our names into one of the walls? To show people that we were the ones that were here?" It was Mary, the youngest girl that had been sent up so far – they estimated that she couldn't have been more than ten. None of them could fathom as to why whoever put them here sent up such a young girl.

Each and every one of them smiled gently at her, they all had a soft spot the size of the Hub for the girl.

"Of course." Alice smiled at her as Mary made grabby hands to be placed upon the older girls shoulders, she indulged her and took the young girl onto her shoulders and walked them over to where Mary wanted them to carve their names in – right next to the door.

Rosa handed Mary a knife and Mary carved her name high up in the wall, each girl carved their name into the wall in varying sizes and styles of writing. Alice carved hers in quite largely with her name in all capital letters.

Alice pulled Mary down from her shoulders playfully and ran around with the girl hanging upside down from her arms, Mary shrieked with laughter. "Come back with the child!" Kat screeched with laughter as she chased the two of them around.

Sometimes, happiness was fleeting. Sadness and loss crept in at the corners of their existence, it haunted each moment, threatened to turn the day of sunshine into one of loss.

Even as a new girl came up in the box each month, some girls would not be able to take it anymore and run out beyond the walls just before the doors would close. Often, they couldn't return. But, sometimes, they would come back through the walls, angered and attack one of the other girls. The first time that it happened, it took them by surprise.

Her name was Elle, she had blue curling around her body, up her side through her neck and it almost seemed to seep into her eyes. The longer they held her, the more violent and lost she became.

After they banished her, a line through the name began to symbolise lost girls.